“Themed roles would help us tell a coherent international story: correspondents for water, fossil fuels, women’s rights, a 1% correspondent.”

Meet Wolfgang Blau, the ‘check your privilege’ candidate:

“In regards to our journalistic portfolio, I would like to propose that we substantially increase the diversity of voices – politically, as well as ethnically… I am not a woman and I have not grown up in the United Kingdom. I can only promise to you that as the Editor-in-Chief – should you vote for me and should the Scott Trust choose to appoint me – I will do everything I possibly can to make sure women succeed in their careers at the Guardian.”

While Emily Bell goes for the tried and tested butter ‘em up approach:

“This is a defining moment for the Guardian. You are among the very best journalists in the world. You have produced stories that have challenged the powerful – from News Corp and Scotland Yard to the US intelligence agencies – with courage and brilliance.”

Last night the Telegraphdismissed the Guardian as “cushioned from commercial reality by a generously-endowed charitable trust”, this afternoon they accuse them of hypocrisy:

“in July last year Apple bought wraparound advertising on The Guardian’s website and stipulated that the advertising should not be placed next to negative news.

A Guardian insider said that the headline of an article about Iraq on The Guardian’s website was changed amid concerns about offending Apple, and the article was later removed from the home page entirely.”

Yet another one jumps: the Telegraph’s Whitehall and Investigations editor Holly Watt, of expenses scandal and Vince Cable sting fame, joins the Guardian. Will the last person to leave the Telegraph please pay back the HSBC loan…

Polly Toynbee has a full page advert in today’s Guardian asking readers to “become a Foundermember” for £540-a-year. In other words write them a cheque because the £1.60 they pay to read the paper isn’t enough to save it from its “precarious” position:

“The Guardian’s life has always been precarious because we don’t have an owner or a corporation propping us up. We don’t have a press baron or oligarch ordering us to take their political or commercial line. We swim along in a dangerous world of media sharks, our independence precious and unique.”

As Press Gazette points out, the “precarious”Guardian currently has cash reserves of £850 million since selling its stake in Autotrader last year. Cynical tax strategies have kept the Guardian afloat whilst simultaneously campaigning against tax avoidance. Amazingly £850 million has built an endowment that will allow the unpopular paper to lose money in perpetuity. All without paying any corporation or capital gains taxes for years…

Over page after page last summer the Guardian splashed on the front page of G2 about the baby-eating antics of News of the World journalists. Today hidden back on page 32 a small clarification reveals allegations were untrue. Notice how the Guardian is currently now splashing page after page, day after day, about the Daily Mirror’scorporate malfeasance and multi-million pay outs to hacked celebs? Nope.

The official line is that GMG CEO Andrew Miller will be standing down as chief executive and leaving Guardian Media Group at the end of June because he could not give the board a long-term commitment:

GMG and GNM are now embarking on the next major transformation programme and the GMG Board understandably wants a chief executive who is able to see that process through over an extended period of time. Given my desire to move to new challenges, I was unable to give the GMG Board the assurances they were seeking in this regard.

Miller was responsible for the cynical tax strategies that saw hundreds of millions in revenue producing Guardian owned assets held offshore in the Caymans tax haven whilst simultaneously the Guardian campaigned against the practice in editorials. The shifty tax strategies kept the Guardian afloat and built an endowment that will allow the paper to lose money almost in perpetuity.Hypocrisy in print and pixels…

Insiders say that in reality Miller’s been being sidelined for a while. David Pemsel, his deputy, is the super smooth ex-bullshitter for “brand consultancy” St Lukes, and a former ITV marketing director, is thought to be most likely to succeed him if the board hires internally.“Imagine what Pemmo could achieve if he wasn’t weighed down by all that self-doubt” one Guardianista told Media Guido archly…

The Guardian takes us “Inside Transnistria, the breakaway nation loyal to Russia” today, with a picture special from the pro-Russian territory which declared independence from Moldova when the Soviet Union fell. Alongside a charming picture of the landscape, this gushing caption:

“The Soviet period was a time of prosperity in villages. Agricultural companies offered many jobs, and the authorities paid attention to the culture of the countryside and offered entertainment for youth.”

60 million killed, but at least they entertained their young people eh…

Outgoing Scott Trust chair Liz Forgan has this afternoon emailed Guardian staff informing them of the selection process to replace Alan Rusbridger. Forgan says “For the first time in Guardian history we will be openly advertising the role,” stressing that […]

Quote of the Day

“I read more bloggers now than mainstream columnists, because they’ve got more interesting things to say. Too many columnists today make you think, ‘Yeah, I think you’ve said that 10 times before and I’ve just noticed your column has not go a single fact in it’”.